HBO is taking a new approach in piquing interest in their new comedies Veep and Girls by offering the premiere episodes available for free the day after they premiere (Girls premieres tonight and Veep premieres on April 22nd). Honestly, this isn’t very surprising as HBO continues to try to reclaim their status as television’s number one premium network for scripted television in a market that continues to become saturated with quality programming.

Will this work? We think it’s doubtful simply due to the fact that HBO has done very little promotion of the two series outside the network and furthermore, this freebie promotion was just announced three days ago. Now, that being said, despite this promotion the shows may do fine on their own. Veep looks particularly funny (always good to see Julia-Louis Dreyfus and hey, look! My Girl‘s Anna Chlumsky is in the cast!) and Girls looks tolerable (kinda like a Sex In The City with awkward, nerdy chicks…. except for that one girl who is on her own planet of hot.). Read the full press release below.

HBO® MAKES PREMIERE EPISODES OF NEW COMEDY SERIES GIRLS(SM) AND VEEP(SM)

AVAILABLE TO ALL AUDIENCES, INCLUDING NON-SUBSCRIBERS, ON MULTIPLE PLATFORMS

Audiences Get Free Access To Shows’ First Episodes on HBO.com, YouTube, Free On Demand Platforms and More Just One Day After Their HBO Network Premiere

New York, N.Y., April 12, 2012 – HBO is giving all audiences, including non-subscribers, a chance to discover its two newest original comedy series GIRLS and VEEP, by offering free access to their first full episodes on multiple platforms.

Beginning the day after their exclusive premieres on the HBO network, the pilots for GIRLS (HBO premiere: Sunday, April 15 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT) and VEEP (HBO premiere: Sunday, April 22, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT), will go live on HBO.com, YouTube, DailyMotion, TV.com, and multiple distributors’ Free On Demand platforms. The sampling opportunity will be promoted on HBO’s Facebook and Twitter profiles and will run from April 16-May 14 for GIRLS and April 23-May 21 for VEEP. (The VEEP pilot will also be available free of charge on iTunes during the sampling period.)

Created by and starring Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture), the new series GIRLS takes a comic look at the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of young women in their 20s living in New York City. In addition to Dunham, the cast includes Jemima Kirke, Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet and Adam Driver, with recurring guest stars including Chris Abbott and Alex Karpovsky.

Created by Armando Iannucci (Oscar® nominee for co-writing “In the Loop”) and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Emmy® winner for Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine), VEEP is the story of Selina Meyer, a woman who becomes vice president, only to discover the job is nothing like she expected, but everything she was warned about. The ensemble cast includes Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, Matt Walsh, Reid Scott, Timothy C. Simons and Sufe Bradshaw.